The Gatekeepers – ☆☆ ½ Excellent historical document, docked half a star for the dumb CGI.
Stories We Tell – ☆½ Self-indulgent, occasionally touching. Didn’t like the non-biological dad.
Ordinary People – ☆☆ Should have been called Upper Middle Class People. Super American, I can see how it would have had a huge impact in its time.
Star Trek Into Darkness – ☆½ Fine, meaningless
Room 237 – ☆ Who cares about the infantile ranting of narcissistic morons?
Manborg – ☆ Kind of unwatchable, although I admire the effort and passion
Pacific Rim – ☆½ Good colors. Too old for this shit.
Pump Up The Volume (rewatch) – ☆☆ Rightfully beloved, incredibly badly edited – why is there no director’s cut??
Vampire’s Kiss – ☆☆☆½ Fucking tremendous. Suzie and I going as Nicholas Cage and Alva for Halloween this year.
This Is The End – ☆½ I laughed, meaningless
Spring Breakers – ☆☆☆ Benoit Debie drinks syrup
Oblivion – ½ couldn’t take more than 15 minutes, not Stephen Platt’s fault, you’re the best Stephen
Ai Weiwei – Never Sorry: ☆☆ Somewhat dull but a good biography of a major art world figure who isn’t in it for the money.
Cave of Forgotten Dreams – ☆☆☆ Wonderful, also deadly boring but worth it for the postscript
Skyfall – ☆☆ Stylish, dull, enjoyed the blue tux
Gwendoline – the height of orientalism, not for me
Killer Party – ½ basically unwatchable
Cutter’s Way – ☆☆ Kind of boring, decent performances, interesting to think of as a prequel to The Big Lebowski
Miami Connection – ☆☆ for enthusiasm, goofy as fuck and boring in the middle but joyful
Cash McCall – ☆☆ Many qualities lacking from modern film, interesting foreshadowing of the importance of M&A in American business life. Weiner sees it as an influence on Mad Men which is evident.
Stoker: ☆☆ Yay Chan-Woo Park and Mia, everything else eh. Plot somewhat predictable.
Sightseers – ☆ Good directing, believable acting, did nothing for me.
Argo – ☆½ Solid, no subtext at all, teaches nothing.
Skyfall – ☆ for great locations and solid direction, otherwise boring.
Evangelion 3.33 You Can (Not) Redo – ☆☆ Presumably a bitter parody of fan desire before an astonishing conclusion
Only The Young – ☆ Attempts Mike Mills, isn’t. Cute kids.
Upstream Color ☆☆☆ Brave and completely American. SECOND APPRAISAL: ☆☆½ Probably low on meaning once you connect circles; still striking.
The Master – ☆☆½ – great staging, some genuine humanity between the leads but a flat ending.
Celeste and Jesse Forever – ☆ for Rashida Jones and an ending I liked
Silver Linings Playbook – ½ for Jennifer Lawrence, otherwise fucking false garbage
Beauty is Embarrassing – ☆½ for enthusiasm.
Killing Them Softly – ½ for slow motion car shooting and opening bit with junkies. Otherwise cynical, obvious, dull.
John Dies at the End – ☆ for funtimes, also liked the handling of the ending and credits
Sleepwalk With Me – ½ didn’t connect with me at all
Flight – ☆ for great plane crash sequence, turned it off after 1:20
End of Watch – ☆½ should have called it “when will Michael Peña die” but good performances
The Dark Knight Rises – ☆☆1/2 – great tech, good holding off of Batman until 3rd act
The Queen of Versailles ☆☆ – somewhat touching portrait of excess and attendant anxiety
Total Recall (2012) – ☆ for Obama money and cityscapes
Savages – ½ for one cool transition and Salma Hayek
Black Rain – ☆☆ Nutty! Like Rising Sun w/ the fear-based racism, has good qualities.
Queue
The Spectacular Now
Computer Chess
Gerhard Richter
Neighboring Sounds
Return From The Ashes
Mr. Freedom
Joe
